Guest Column
Hispanic Attorney General Might Lose His Job
- Hispanic Attorney General Might Lose His Job
- By Robert Miranda
Alberto Gonzales was sworn in as the 80th Attorney General of the United States on February 14. The former White House counsel is the first Hispanic to hold the position.
Last week Gonzales failed to convince the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and other lawmakers that President George W. Bush had the legal authority to conduct warrant-less eavesdropping against U.S. citizens.
Gonzales defended the National Security Agency's surveillance of international phone calls and e-mails as an indispensable "early warning system" against terrorist attacks.
Wow! This guy is not only clueless, but he’s dangerous to our democratic way of life.
After Gonzales persistently defended the Bush administration’s right to dismiss our civil liberties, Democrats and some Republicans challenged Gonzales by questioning the assertion that Bush had the authority to engage in surveillance that crossed the line of privacy rights.
"I do not think that any fair, realistic reading of the September 14 resolution gives you the power to conduct electronic surveillance," committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, told Gonzales.
The Pennsylvania Senator called for investigations by the full Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees, saying only a thorough closed-door examination of the program could determine whether Bush had the inherent authority to conduct warrant-less surveillance.
"It's the equilibrium of our constitutional system which is involved," Specter said. "And the al Qaeda threat is very weighty ... but so are civil rights."
The actions by Gonzales leave little doubt that what we have in the White House is a bunch of mindless yahoos running amuck in the Oval Office.
Gonzales stuck to his guns however; he insisted that the president's authorization of the program was consistent with the law and his constitutional authorities.
Clearly, Gonzales is off the track with his assertions. The program he is protecting violates privacy rights as well as the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which makes spying on Americans in the United States illegal without the approval of a special secret court.
Bush however, refuses to allow the secret FISA court to review the eavesdropping program. Why?
Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin accused Gonzales of misleading the Senate during his confirmation hearings in January 2005 when the attorney general said under oath that Bush would not authorize illegal action.
When Feingold asked Gonzales whether Bush had authorized any other actions that would be illegal if not permitted under similar claims of constitutional power or authorization to use military force, Gonzales said, "Not to my knowledge, senator."
- I’m not sure if we should be relieved by that answer or not.
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- Robert Miranda, a frequent contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com) is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Publisher of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com
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